How to Get Started

El Centro College, in conjunction with UT Southwestern Medical Center, provides Paramedic education for college credit and EMT training that can be taken as noncredit and converted into college credits.

Paramedic program

The Paramedic certificate program takes approximately six and a half months to complete (34 to 42 credit hours) and is designed to prepare you to provide advanced prehospital care to emergency patients. Courses include classroom instruction, hospital rotations with emphasis on emergency department experience and emergency ambulance experience.

The Paramedic program will prepare you to function in an advanced life-support capacity with invasive skills such as:

intravenous initiation

external jugular cannulation

endotracheal intubation

drug administration by various routes

intraosseous infusions

electrocardiogram (ECG) rhythm identification

12-lead ECG

defibrillation and cardioversion

noninvasive cardiac pacing

chest decompression

How to Get Started in the Paramedic Program

Prerequisites

To enroll, you must have completed previous EMT training and have an adequate background in anatomy and physiology as verified by transcripted anatomy and physiology coursework, or by successfully passing the anatomy/physiology class administered by the UT Southwestern Emergency Medicine Education Division. Call 214-648-5246 for more information regarding this course.

Students who successfully complete the Paramedic program are awarded college credit for EMT and anatomy/physiology classes if completed through UT Southwestern Medical Center. Candidates therefore receive 42 hours of college credit from El Centro College for the Paramedic program if they complete EMT and anatomy/physiology classes at UT Southwestern Medical Center, or 34 hours without those classes.

Admission Requirements

To apply for entrance to the Paramedic certificate program, you must:

Be a high school graduate or successfully complete the General Education Development (GED) test

Priority acceptance is given to area EMS agency personnel. Other applicants are accepted to the program after those agency needs are met, typically allowing eight to 20 spaces for non-EMS-employed individuals.

Application Process

Applications for the Paramedic program are typically due four months before the beginning class date. If you are accepted for an interview, you will be notified two to three weeks after the application deadline. After the interview, we’ll send you an acceptance status notice two to three weeks later.

If you are accepted to the Paramedic program and have not taken anatomy and physiology, you will automatically be scheduled for that class. If you do not pass anatomy and physiology, you will forfeit your space in the Paramedic class.

Once you have been accepted into the Paramedic program, you must complete additional paperwork such as immunizations, physical exam, drug screening and a criminal background check. Information on these forms will be mailed with the acceptance letter.

The UT Southwestern website has additional information on assessment testing, retesting, program curriculum, expenses and more.

Tuition

Students in the Paramedic program pay tuition to El Centro College, a registration fee to UT Southwestern Medical Center and various other fees (including fees for Texas Department of State Health Services registration and National Registry of EMTs testing). See the tuition chart on UT Southwestern Medical Center’s general information page for complete fee and tuition information.

For the El Centro tuition portion,

Dallas County residents pay $156 per three-hour class — that’s $52 per credit hour, or just $624 for a full semester load of 12 credit hours.

Compare that to what you’d pay elsewhere! See our tuition rates for tuition according to your place of residency.

El Centro College tuition is waived for individuals employed by a fire department. Volunteers for fire departments may also be eligible for tuition waiver.

Noncredit EMT classes consist of 23 days spent in the classroom (7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday), followed by hospital and ambulance rotations and the National Registry of EMT’s (NREMT) skill exam.

Hospital and ambulance rotations consist of one 24-hour shift on a Dallas Fire-Rescue Department mobile intensive care unit (MICU); and five 8-hour shifts in Parkland Hospital’s emergency department and labor and delivery, and Children's Medical Center emergency department. The NREMT written exam can be scheduled following the last day of class.

Our faculty members not only have relevant academic degrees and advanced certifications, they also have real-world experience that enables them to relate to the challenges you’ll face on the job. Our instructors work with you one-on-one, encouraging you and helping you to succeed in your education and career. See profiles of our Paramedic and EMT program faculty members.

Accreditation

The Paramedic program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs in conjunction with the Committee on Accreditation for Educational Programs for the EMS Profession.

Graduates will complete requirements for Texas Department of State Health Services EMT-paramedic certification, which includes the National Registry of EMTs examination.

Program Location

All classes in El Centro-UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Paramedic and EMT programs are held at UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Bass Center campus, located at 6300 Harry Hines Blvd. in the basement of the Chase Bank building. Hospital rotations are held at Parkland Health and Hospital Systems, located at 5201 Harry Hines Blvd., as well as Children’s Medical Center and other local hospitals.